The Me-Too Phenomenon
Pg 75.
Carol: I often forget my last name, still.
Peter: How long have you two been married now -- nine months?
Carol: About.
Peter: I have that trouble every year in January.
Hofstadter's example of analogous reasoning is exemplary for the following reasons, it clearly demonstrates the issue at large, it is within a familiar context[cheater detection], and it is one of those quirks that happens to everyone.
Relating the family name forgetting of the newly-wed to everyones problem of writing last years number on this years dates; it really melds well. Both are issues of remaining in old patterns, habits; but one is an event of once in a lifetime variety and the other happens annually. One is a matter of self identification, and the other a matter of time and setting identification. One is a string, the other an integer. What I like best, is that they are phenomena of the same mental mechanism that deals with recalling information while writing.
I tend to continue writing 8-15-2009 in September, because man, I don't give up on Summer.
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